This is for a fresh install of Homebridge with auto-start on reboot or error.

If you are trying to convert an existing install, this step-by-step will not work for you, and you’ll need to modify it to suit your needs.

1. Create the Default Settings file:
   sudo nano /etc/default/homebridge
   …and paste this into it.
2. Create the executable service:
   sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/homebridge.service
   …and paste this into it.
3. Create a user to run the service:
   sudo useradd --system homebridge
4. Create the directory for Homebridge to live in:
   sudo mkdir /var/homebridge
5. Open up the directory permissions:
   sudo chmod -R 0777 /var/homebridge
6. Reload all of the daemons
   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
7. Enable the Homebridge service to start:
   sudo systemctl enable homebridge
8. Start Homebridge yourself:
   sudo systemctl start homebridge

Troubleshooting:

• journalctl -f -u homebridge to view the logs
• systemctl status homebridge to check the service status.

Contents of /etc/defaults/homebridge:

# Defaults / Configuration options for homebridge
# The following settings tells homebridge where to find the config.json file and where to persist the data (i.e. pairing and others)
HOMEBRIDGE_OPTS=-U /var/homebridge

# If you uncomment the following line, homebridge will log more
# You can display this via systemd’s journalctl: journalctl -f -u homebridge
# DEBUG=*

Contents of /etc/systemd/system/homebridge.service:

[Unit]
Description=Node.js HomeKit Server
After=syslog.target network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=homebridge
EnvironmentFile=/etc/default/homebridge
ExecStart=/usr/bin/homebridge $HOMEBRIDGE_OPTS
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10
KillMode=process

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target